What is the world coming to when Coates is agreeing with Campbell Brown? What will happen to my leftist credentials now? No radical am I...
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I hear you. Campbell Brown has done a good job of actually practicing journalism as of late, calling a cloudy day, a cloudy day and being a voice of reason. Kudos to her.
"no radical"
The problem is the old paradigm is broken. That's why the GOP is foundering, and why (unless he really is transformative change) Obama and the democrats will follow.
You're a radical Coats, a radical from what Rauch calls the "marginalized middle". That's why a gun-toting capitalist from the East End feels at home on your blog.
What makes this all the more ignorant is that Barack and Hussein are both of Semitic derivation; and surprise, so are the names John and Sarah.
People who get off on this kind of bigotry should at least have the stones to admit it and quit trying to pretend that there's no harm intended.
Really liking Campbell Brown, though sadly for the state of modern media the point at which she really soared was asserting that she would call a cloudy day a cloudy day.
I think she's right about the left, too. Less reaction to "that one" or calling all signs of disrespect racist would let the really objectionable stuff, letting "terrorist" and "treason" fly at their rallies with no McCain/Palin correction, stand clear and unmuddied by random offense taking.
I fear McCain has unleashed a monster in Sarah Palin. She's had a taste of the power she can obtain via the fusion of Huey Long, George Wallace and countless right-wing madmen. She knows exactly what she's doing and she relishes in it. As the economy continues to disintegrate, I am starting to fear the social demons it will unleash. Palin is already attempting to co-opt them. This is how American fascism begins folks.
While we're at this point yet, we better get ourselves organized in order to fight this scourge. Hopefully we can win with ideas and words, but if we continue this downward spiral we also need to be prepared to fight in the streets.
There are more of us than them. We can win if we put aside our minor differences and band together.
It may be "baiting" for people to refer to Obama with his middle name, but it's not "race-baiting."
Sort of agree with poolside. Is this race-baiting or Muslim-baiting? Is that just picking nits? Plus it seems to me that the "that one" comment isn't racist in itself, but I'm also not sure that McCain would be so incredibly dismissive (and use such a dismissive tone) on an educated 47-year-old White man running for President.
Anyway, thank you Campbell Brown for calling McCain on this shit, even if you are semantically incorrect!
I’m not really sure McCain’s “that one” comment was all so bad. I think it was a bad attempt at humor (and not his only one last night — did you see the audience grimacing at some of his jokes?).
But it backfired for a couple of legitimate reasons. First, during McCain’s initial debate performance, his disrespect for Obama was evident, and that rightly made the next few news cycles. And that set up the narrative that McCain has a certain contempt for Obama, which I think is true enough.
Second, there is the race thing. And I don’t know how much a factor it was in reality, or what McCain’s feelings are for Obama as a Black man, but you just cannot make a joke in that context–an old, white, MLK Day-hating senator referencing a Black senator dismissively–and not expect some racial dynamic to come into play. You just can’t.
Now, that may seem a stretch, and like a lot of racial politics in his country, it may be a stretch in a different context. But you have to consider the campaign that McCain has chosen to run in the last week or so, the coded racial language, the “othering” of Obama, the terrorist narrative that they are so desperately trying to jump-start.
Without that context, and without McCain’s obvious contempt for Obama, maybe it’s an unfortunate gaffe. Humor gone wrong. But with all of the last month or so, you got what I saw on CBS after the debate–a bunch of undecided voters saying that McCain calling Obama “that one” was unsettling and disrespectful.
It is hate mongering.
I guess the message here is Let calm heads prevail.
While I agree with this sentiment, I'm becoming increasingly uneasy with this idea that we should recognize overt racism, but we shouldn't be concerned or mad about it. I just can't understand the lack of outrage.
Maybe it's because I had to "learn" about racism in America. I grew up in the Phillipines, and moved to the States when I was in high school. For most of my life, I went to the International School where literally everyone was a minority. We celebrated UN day; everyone showed up to represent their culture through dress, food, chochkeys, etc. Intolerance was not an option. Either was racism.
So I'm always appalled by racism...in any form. I'm still learning the nuances; I'm trying to understand TNC's views on racism as bigotry. I get the larger point, but I still don't understand the lack of outrage. I'm trying...I'm listening.
num1Obamaton, Arabs are Semites too.
poolside & Maya, I think it is race-baiting. No, Islam is not a race, but the right is playing on associations between the name "Hussein" and 1) African-American Muslims, e.g. Nation of Islam, and 2) Arabs. Are Arabs a separate "race" from whites? If you go by the "race science" version of human variation (white/black/yellow/red), then no. But are they fully "white"? Also no. There's no doubt that the "Hussein" refrain is meant to rhyme with the color of Obama's skin, albeit not in a very rigorous or specific way. But then racism has never been noted for its intellectual rigor.
I didn't react negatively or was offended by "That One!" -- rather, I have been endlessly amused.
I think the best response to the craziness is to win, while staying true to your principles. If the Republicans are losing, and turning into nasty, sore losers, then that will accelerate their loss.
I'm not saying there's nothing to worry about, tra-la. We can call this stuff out, but not in a vindictive or combative way. You know, the "wow, that's really silly."
Once its done, I'd prefer the attitude of "we have work to do, and we need as many people on board to do it as we can get."
We've got to figure out how to reduce our oil consumption and our carbon footprint, for example. We can't afford to say that those "other" people can't help. Whether they are gay, Muslim, Black, Appalachian rednecks, or green aliens from Jupiter, if they want to help somehow, good.
It's not only just, it's also effective.
I agree with Campbell Brown in the first part of her diatribe about race baiting but I disagree with the second part about "that one" at least in part. From almost the moment those words were uttered different pundits have been questioning what tone was set by them. Now I will agree that they probably wasn't racist but they were for damn sure disrespectful. Campbell Brown herself makes the case for John Mccain's words being very disrespectful when she says it reminds her of an old Irish parent calling kids "that one". Similarly Chris Matthews has said it reminded him of an old Irish relative referring to kids as "that one". Funny how anybody who has an ancedote about the use of the term "that one" always relates it to an adult referring to a child. Its a lot like how white men used to refer to black men as "boy" even if they were the same age or older. Barack Obama is a grown ass man and he shouldnt be addressed as anything but that. Now again as a black man I didnt take it as racist but I DID take it as a damned disrespectful reference to a sitting U.S. Senator and presidential candidate and most of all a GROWN ASS MAN!
I don't think the "That One" comment was racially motivated and people should really drop this line of attack because it will diminish our credibility when we call out real race-baiting which is certainly going on.
If anything, attack that statement with ridicule. McCain sounded like a crotchety old man calling out some teenagers in front of the 7-11.
"sw" at 9:43 and "sgwhiteinfla" at 10:37, above, pretty much covered my response to Ms. Brown's 'special comment.' But her commentary is but one example of a bigger issue I have with the MSM's coverage (it can't be called 'reporting') of Campaign Negativity, and that is their insistence on equivalence -- the easiest and most ham-fisted way to appear "fair," "balanced," or I guess "not in the tank for Obama." How is the flame-throwing by the GOP candidates *themselves*, Cindy McCain, and others appearing with them on their campaign stages *at all* the same thing as bloggers and pundits having whatever degree of problem they had with "that one"? How can the MSM baldly equate the Dems' campaign ads and the remarks/responses of the principals and their surrogates with -- in quantity and quality (tone, foundation, and purpose) -- what the McCain campaign is promulgating?
This mere fact of this blog discussion highlights how dog whistle racism is running today's politics. And there are so many examples!
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I personally think Campbell Brown has started these diatribes because she fears for her job. How many women anchors has CNN gotten rid of or demoted in the last few years? Brown sees the success of people like Olbermann and Maddow who make it into the news for having a "controvesial" opinion, and I think she sees it as job security. When she says this stuff, people talk about it, and then they want to watch her. I don't see it as being sincere or natural, the way it comes from the heart from the women on The View or the MSNBC anchors. I think Brown is just hopping on the leftist-gravy train.
campbell brown is a tool.
she makes a surprisingly strong and sensible set of statements about the race-baiting but then turns the whole thing into a "but the other side does something wrong too" thing again, but ultimately dumping responsibility for keeping discourse civil on ... drum roll ... the viewer.
whether campbell brown forced herself to sort of say something because she thinks "progressives are going to take over" msnbc (i'm not holding my breath), i can't say, but please do not start patting campbell on the back and thinking this somehow moves the truthiness lever some fraction in the direction of accuracy.
she was allowed to say it because, imo, the people running the operation are, rightfully, starting to be concerned about what the mccain-palin antics will mean in the not too distant future, no matter who "wins" or what else happens.
we do indeed live in very interesting times.